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Democracy and development should go hand in hand - Jaipal Reddy

Capitol Area Telugu Society (CATS), USA felicitated the Union Minister

The US Capital area residents filled the banquet hall on the evening of 1st June to felicitate the eloquent, intellectual and the best parliamentarian award winner, Honorable Union Minister for Urban Development Shri. S. Jaipal Reddy who has been visiting the US on official business.

Ram Mohan Konda, a founding member of CATS was the master of ceremonies for the evening and orchestrated the entire evening. The evening was started by Bhuvanesh Boojala, an entrepreneur and Palamoor NRI forum member, introducing the minister to the audience. Mr. Boojala talked about Mr. Reddy's intellect and recanted the long and illustrious career he has had in the field of public service and politics. The minister was felicitated in a traditional manner by presenting the minister with a shawl and a plaque by the CATS founding member and two of the owners of Minerva Group Mr. Prashanth Goguri and Mr. Kiran Gunnam and the CATS Chairperson Chittraranjan Nallu.

Arjun Dyapa, who was here on the occasion all the way from New Jersey, lauded the minister for his great qualities and characteristic traits. Subsequently, Madanmohan Vanga recounted his 30-year relationship with the minister and spoke about how the minister endeared himself to the downtrodden and backward groups of people in the society in Andhra Pradesh, and from the Kalavakurthy area.

Murali Bukkapatnam, a founding member of CATS spoke next. Mr.Bukkapatnam brought to light the accomplishments of the central government under the congress leadership and pointed out the unfair media treatment of the central and state congress governments. He decried the lack of positive coverage by media although a lot has been accomplished. Having acknowledged the great accomplishments, Mr.Bukkapatnam stressed that there is a lot to be accomplished yet and proceeded to offer a plan that the minister could potentially consider putting into action. The plan asks for focus on developing Class 2, 3, and 4 cities in India and spreading the mprovements and the fruits of a super charged economy (growing at 9% or above for the last several years) to more urban areas which are not benefiting as mush as the mega cities like Hyderabad. He called for developing world-class urban infrastructure in an equitable manner with public private partnership.

CATS Chairperson, Chittaranjan Nallu speaking next sympathetically acknowledged the challenges that lie ahead for the minister. Extracting several character traits that were showered on the minister by the speakers before him, he suggested that the minister needs to make use of the very same character traits -- boldness, intellect, pragmatism to good use and work to improve the lot of the urban dwellers. He drew particular attention to transportation problems and pollution. He pointed out that special attention has to be paid to pollution while urban problems are solved since pollution is a severe problem, which extracts a severe price in terms of public health from the urban dwellers.

The minister spoke next starting out on one of his favorite topics -- democracy. He called the Indian Democracy, the greatest democracy and proceeded to compare it with other democracies around the world. He supported his opinion by sharing several examples and comparisons -- with the bottom line that India has been able to sustain democracy while it was developing whereas most other democracies came into being after they were developed implying that it is difficult to continue as a democracy while dealing with so many problems, and yet, India has thrived in spite of the pains of a developing country.

The minister then focused on the work at hand -- urban development -- and described why it is important (a third of the economy is construction driven in urban areas) and the reason for elevating an area at the central level while it is mostly a state function (lack of coordinated development at the state levels). He spent quite a bit of time talking about some of the projects at the states level and described the approach the central government is going to take. He stressed that there is a great need to learn best practices from other countries. He stressed that it is also very important to avoid the mistakes others have made (avoid development of person oriented transportation systems and focus on environment friendly options). He ended on a very optimistic note that India will be able to solve her problems in the coming fifteen to twenty years and improve its standing in the world. The minister answered several questions from the attendees and had a spirited discussion on several questions that were raised.

Several prominent members attended the meeting from the region and some of them included the following. Jaya Valluripally, Convener, TANA 2007 accompanied by her husband Koteswara Rao, Prasad Tummuluri - entrepreneur, Somu Karamchetti - scientist, Suresh Saribala CEO of Loginsoft and Suren Reddy, Manager of QA at America Online.

After the meeting the minister had dinner with the gathering and spent lot of time talking to several people one on one and answering. The minister was accompanied by Mr. Tiwari (Director of transportation), Mr. C Venkatram Reddy, O.S.D to Minister. They were seen talking to several attendees and collecting valuable inputs from the NRI in attendance.

Mr. Jayender Annam of Virginia, the main sponsor of the event, gave vote of thanks. He thanked Minister and his wife for taking time out their hectic schedule to meet the local NRIs and patiently answering their questions and explaining the investment opportunities in India.

It was a busy night for CATS, since they had another event the very same night felicitating Dr. P.B. Sreenivas, a renowned singer and lyricist at a nearby location in Virginia.